Gemini Waiting
by LongTimeFan
Summary: An added scene to the episode Gemini & Counting...


Title: Gemini Waiting

By LongTimeFan

Rating: T

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction based on the television series, _Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future_. It is in no way intended to infringe on the copyrights of Landmark Entertainment Corporation or anyone else who may have legal rights to the characters and settings. I don't own the characters. Only using them for a short time and will return them in relatively the same shape as when borrowed. As always, any errors or inconsistencies are of my doing.

Author's Note: The following is based on the events of this episode "Gemini and Counting" and is an "added scene" that sits between the point when Tank picks up Pilot to their leaving for the Passages. I finished this Labor Day weekend but waited to post it until I could check with Windjammer. (Didn't want to post mine if she was ready to post her's. Thanks for the go ahead Windjammer.) Any similarities between this story and Windjammer's upcoming one is purely by accident. Enjoy.

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"Tank to jumpship."

"Jumpship here. Did you find Pilot?" Hawk sounded tense.

"I got her."

"Status?" the sound of the Captain's voice interjected over the open communications line.

"Little banged up, but nothing that won't heal."

"Did she get the vaccine?" Power asked.

Turning his head so that Pilot could hear him, Tank asked her the same question. When she nodded, he replied, "She's got it, Captain."

"Good. Let's get it back for Mentor to check out as soon as possible."

Flying back towards the ship, Tank glanced at Pilot to make sure she was okay. He knew she did not have her Power Suit on to protect her from any stray shots that may be thrown at them. "We'll be back at the ship in just a few minutes. If anything happens, stay behind me," he told her.

Landing, Michael breathed a sigh of relief to see Masterson waiting for them. If Hawk was outside and in the open, that meant Dread's troops weren't near. Nodding towards the older man, he shut down the bike.

"Glad you made it," Hawk said, moving to help Jennifer off the bike. "Come on kid. Let's get you under cover." As they moved to the ship, he announced over his shoulder at Tank, "Captain's on his way in too," to let Ellis know to keep an eye out.

"I can walk you know," Jennifer said, as Hawk helped her towards the ship.

"Humor me," Masterson retorted back, keeping an arm around Pilot and making sure he was between her and any potential laser fire. "Makes me feel useful."

Inside the jump ship, Scout met her at the door and escorted her to a bench in the hold. Helping her take the knapsack from around her neck, he tossed it and her hat beside her. "Let's see how bad you banged yourself up this time, shall we?"

"I'm okay," Jennifer assured him, rolling her eyes at his dry tone. "Just a bump or two, that's all."

"Hmm… that's swelling nicely," Robert observed, scrutinizing her lip. "Here, hold this to it," he said giving her a cold pack before moving his attention to a gash on her head. Gently probing it, he asked, "Headache? Blurry vision? Nausea?"

"Not from that," Jennifer answered dryly, acknowledging the return of the Captain and Tank with a small wave. "Ouch," she breathed, leaning away from the pressure of Scout's touch.

"Hawk, get us out of here before more troops arrive." Turning back towards the others, Jon ran an appraising eye over Pilot. She didn't seem to be too bad off but he'd feel better when he had it confirmed. "Scout?"

"She'll be okay. Gonna have a headache for awhile would be my guess," Baker reported, taping a bandage into place. "That'll do until we get back to base."

"And her leg?" Power asked, pointing to the bloody patch on it.

Frowning, Scout looked down. "I didn't see that."

At the same time, Jennifer interrupted. "It's not mine. I… had a little run in with a cadet."

The quiet tone of Pilot's voice caused Power to send a questioning look towards Tank. Shaking his head, Tank broke the silence when he asked, "The one who was trying to shoot you when I got there?"

"Erin," Jennifer whispered, looking away.

Reading Jennifer's body language, Jon battled with himself. Obviously there was more to what happened with the cadet but it seems that she was not ready to talk about it yet. "I'm sure we'll find out about her when you give your report later." Nodding to the others to indicate they should give her some space he added, "Why don't you rest? We'll be back at base soon and you can get cleaned up while Mentor's checking the vaccine."

Smiling gratefully at the Captain, Pilot eased herself flat on the bench and threw an arm over her eyes. She realized the mission had been harder on her emotionally than she was aware when she felt tears slip from her eyes. Not wanting anyone else to see, she rolled over to face the back of the bench and curled herself up as much as she could.

A light touch from Tank drew Jon's attention to him. When the big man indicated he should look at Pilot, Jon frowned when he saw how much she had physically withdrawn. Mentally, Jon kicked himself for allowing her to go on the mission.

At first he hadn't like the idea of her going into a Dread installation by herself. Later, when he saw how much the uniform was affecting her, he almost ordered her not to go. He hadn't seen her that withdrawn and uncommunicative in several years. It bothered him more than he was willing to admit.

Coming into base, Jon looked back at Pilot to see how she would react to being back home. Her lack of movement caused him to frown even more.

"Scout, have Mentor analyze the serum. Make sure Dread didn't have it tampered with."

"Yes, sir,"

"She's not doing too good is she?" Hawk asked quietly, stopping beside Jon before leaving the ship.

"No," Jon answered. "That uniform and being back there were hard on her."

"It was spooky to see how much she shut down emotionally once that uniform went on," Masterson said. "It was like when we first found her."

"Only worse," Jon breathed.

"Go talk to her," Hawk urged. "You're probably the only one she's going to listen to right now," he added before heading out of the ship.

Giving Tank and Scout encouraging looks as they passed with worried looks, Jon waited a few minutes to make sure the others were gone before he headed to the back.

From her breathing, Jon knew she was awake. "You okay?" he called softly, laying a hand on her shoulder. When she didn't answer, he leaned over to look at her face. He could see the tracks the tears had left in the soot on her face. "Jennifer," he sighed, nudging her to move over so he could sit down.

As Jennifer turned onto her back and scooted over to make room for Jon, she tried to wipe away the evidence that she had been crying. "I'm okay," she said with a shaky smile, trying to convince him. "I just fell asleep and didn't realize we were at base yet."

"Uh huh," Jon answered dryly. Reaching up and capturing her hand that was now toying with the dried blood on her pants, he said, "Wanna talk about it?"

A half-hearted smile pulled at her lips, as she shrugged. "Not much to tell."

Pinning her with his eyes, Jon cocked one eyebrow in doubt.

Recognizing the signs that he was willing to sit where he was and wait until she was ready to talk, Jennifer sighed. Sometimes she hated that no matter how much she tried to keep her defenses up around him, he always managed to break through them. He was the only person she had ever known who could do that.

"When I got there, I tried to go through the tunnels like we planned. But there were electronic force fields installed in them now, so I had to go in through an access door on the outside. When I got in, a cadet… Erin…. was waiting and did as any good Dread youth is trained to do," Pilot voice held a tinge of derision in it with the words "she attacked."

"You fought," Jon assumed, knowing the Jennifer would not allow herself to be captured.

Nodding, Pilot continued. "She was good. We ended up face to face with guns drawn." Jennifer pulled herself into a sitting position, wrapping her arms around her knees. "I don't think she had actually ever shot anyone before though."

"So, what happened?"

"I shot her in the leg," she confessed, darting uncertain eyes toward Jon. "Even then though," she snorted, "she didn't give up. Pulled a grenade and triggered it. Said she blow us both up if I didn't let her go."

"Kinda remind you of anyone?" Jon nudged teasingly.

Smiling, Jennifer toyed again with the spots on her legs. "Yeah," she breathed. "Obviously, I disarmed her and tied her up while I got the vaccine. When I got back, I had a few minutes so I tried to patched up her leg before I headed for the rendezvous point." Shifting uncomfortably, she added, "She was crying."

"She hurt," Jon said softly, an image of the scene coming to his mind as Jennifer described it. He knew from experience that this Erin was blonde, young and naively devoted to Dread's mantra of mechanical perfection, like so many other Dread Youth he had seen before.

"When I explained they were tears and that being scared was normal, she started citing Dread's litany of anti-life." Agitated, Jennifer got up and moved to Tank's station. Running her fingers across the dials she said, "Do you have any idea how much I have tried to forget those words? But she started and it was like the last several years had never existed." Looking toward the ceiling, she closed her eyes in a vain attempt to escape the memories of life in the Dread Youth that flashed in her head. Swallowing hard, she confessed, "I could even hear Dread's voice in my head."

"You're not like her," Jon assured Pilot.

"But I was," Pilot said softly, glancing back him. "When she realized that I had been in the Dread Youth, she was shocked. Said it was impossible, that I had to be lying."

"What did you say to that?" Jon asked.

"That I wasn't. I tried to make her understand that she was human and that Dread was wrong."

"She wasn't ready to hear what you had to say," Jon surmised, his eyes following her while she paced the small confines of the ship.

"No, she heard me," Jennifer said softly, from the other side of the hold. "I asked her to come with us. Before Tank arrived, she had somehow gotten loose and followed me. Said I could surrender or die." Plopping down on a bench, she added, "I said kill me cause there was no way I was going back there."

"You meant it?" Jon asked, knowing the answer but wanting to keep her talking. He sensed that she was still not getting to the root of what was really bothering her right now.

"If those were my only options, then yes," Jennifer stated, her stare challenging him to contradict her choice.

Jon ignored the challenge offered. "Obviously she didn't."

"Tank came about that time, but still, I don't think she would have shot me," Jennifer murmured, her mind obviously focused on the moment she was speaking about. "The fact that I was willing to die rather than go back confused her. I think it convinced her even more that I might be telling the truth."

Getting back up, she started to pace again. "If I'd just had a little more time, I might have been able to persuade her to leave with us."

"You don't know that," Jon countered gently.

"You weren't there," Pilot spat, spinning to face him. "I could see it in her eyes."

The unspoken feeling behind Chase's words was not lost on Power. It was the second time she had challenged him. She was angry. He'd seen her like this before, when she had first arrived at the base. Angry at Dread and all he stood for. Angry for her part in it and angry that she couldn't stop it.

Still, there was something else there too, simmering just under the anger. If he pushed just a little more, he was sure she would reveal what it was.

"What would have changed if I'd been there?" he asked, his tone neutral.

Jon's question caught Jennifer off guard. After a moment, she shook her head. "Nothing," she conceded, blowing out a breath. Resuming her pacing, she added, "There was nothing you could have done."

Several minutes of silence descended between the two. Quietly, Jon watched as Pilot sat down for a few brief seconds only to once again stand back up and resume her pacing, pausing to touch an object for a few minutes and then move on.

When she spoke again, her voice was husky with emotion. "In those months after Sandtown and before I got away, I use to dream about being someplace else, anyplace else. I had no idea where it might be. I only knew I didn't belong in the Dread Youth any longer. When we'd go out on patrol, I'd hold my breath in anticipation, hoping I'd find some place where I could belong and that I'd get my chance to get away. That became _my_ mission, _my_ purpose."

Jon flinched at the desperate tone that had crept into Jennifer's voice as she spoke. He knew from previous conversations that time in her life had been hard, but she rarely spoke of it. When she had, it had been a dispassionate telling of the events rather than sharing the emotional toll it had taken on her.

"I saw you and the others one day during that time, did you know that?" Pilot asked, looking over at him to judge his reaction to her words.

"No, where was that?" Power asked, surprised by the revelation.

"In a settlement called Westland. Dread had received word that you'd be there. I was with the detail that was sent to capture you," Jennifer said, a sardonic smile at the irony of the situation on her face.

"I don't remember seeing you," Jon said, remembering the small band of settlers he and the team had rescued. In his mind's eye he could see the squadron of troopers and an overunit, but no sign or memory of any Dread Youth in the vicinity.

"There were three of us. We were deployed around the encampment. Our mission was to study you, learn your tactics, deployment, movements, how you would escape… anything that could explain why you were so good at beating the troopers and biodreads." Snorting, Jennifer shook her head at the memory. "Dread thought that he could take that knowledge and program it into Soaron to give him an advantage."

"What did you learn?" Power asked as she sat down across from him, more curious than irritated. He had realized long ago that Dread would use any means necessary to beat him and his team.

"I watched the people when they saw you. All I had ever gotten from people like that were looks of fear and hatred for what I was and what I represented. But when they saw you…" A small smile pulled at Jennifer's face as she pictured in her mind that day. "I'd never seen anything like it. It was in their faces. You were their hope, their means to escape. You offered them deliverance from the death and destruction that I was a part of."

"You saw that same look in Erin's eyes," Jon surmised, understanding the implicit reason for Jennifer to reveal this part of her past now.

"I could have saved her if I would have not gotten on that bike," Jennifer whispered hoarsely, rising to move away. "If I'd just had a few more minutes to talk with her, she would have come and not have to go through what I did."

"Pilot," Jon called, stopping her from leaving. "Jennifer, you don't know that." Sensing her objection to his words, he continued, not allowing her time to voice them. "She isn't you. The words you told her today could be no more than a distant memory by tomorrow."

"But…"

"No, listen to me," he cut her off his voice kind but firm. "Even if that's not true, that you did get through to her, that's still no guarantee that she was ready to leave. It took you months to get mentally and psychologically ready to walk away from everything you had ever known. And then it was only because you hated it so much, your anger drove you to attempt what your mind told you meant death. Anger and sheer desperation for survival was what kept you going through it all. Did she have _that_? Did you see _that_ in her eyes too?" A wave of sadness passed over Jon's face. "Cause I did, in those people's eyes in Westland and in hundreds more just like them."

Noting that Pilot's eyes were wet with unshed tears, he moved his grip to rubbed her arms, his voice softening. "You didn't fail her, Jennifer. You gave her a glimpse of an alternative to Dread's demented vision and propaganda that humans aren't worth keeping alive. You gave her something she had never had the chance to feel, see or experience. You gave her a little piece of her own humanity back." Smiling gently, he reiterated, "You didn't fail her."

Locking eyes with Jon, Jennifer desperately wanted to believe him. The young cadet had been so much like herself at that age. It hurt to think that Erin would have the months of uncertainty and unhappiness that she had experienced. Battling with her own emotions and thoughts, she leaned forward and rested her head on Jon's chest. She felt his arms surround her and gently draw her to him.

Some part of her knew he was right, yet another part of her still grieved for the young woman she had walked away from. Jennifer vowed to find Erin again. When that day happened, she would know for sure if the young woman was desperate enough to leave and find herself in a world where you could be heartbroken one moment, and peaceful and content in the next.

Resting his head next to hers, Jonathon mentally sighed for the woman in his arms. He hated that she had to come face to face with her past and a mirror image of herself. Yet he also knew that in the end, it was bound to happened one day. And he was sure, as she had so many times before, Jennifer would grow from it, learning a little more about what it meant to be human along the way

"Hawk to Captain."

Squeezing her gently one more time, Jon released his hold and answered Matt's call. "Captain here. What did Mentor's analysis determine?" Moving a step or two away from her, he re-erected the invisible wall of command protocol between them.

"It's what we need. He estimates there's enough to vaccinate everyone at the Passages and have a little left over. Our girl did good."

Smiling at the blush that crossed Pilot's face at the praise, Jon caught her eye as he said, "Yes, she did. Pilot's about ready. Have Scout contact the Passages and tell them we'll be there within the hour. Power out."

"You better get cleaned up," the Captain urged, picking up her hat and handing to her.

Pausing at the hatchway, Jennifer looked back. "Jon?" When Power, looked at her, she said, "Thanks," before stepping into the hanger bay.

The end.


End file.
